


Happy Memory

by Braincoins



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, prompt, shallura sundays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 01:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8729698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Braincoins/pseuds/Braincoins
Summary: Shiro teaches Allura to waltz.





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Shallura Sundays 1st prompt: _Dancing._** Naturally, I went literal with it. I spent days looking at this prompt, convinced I’d never come up with anything for it; I laid down to sleep last night, and Bam. 
> 
> Not connected to any of my other work. Just something cute and sweet. 
> 
> As usual, not much in the way of editing.  
> ======================================

            She was standing by herself at the top of the stairs, staring out over the dark ballroom. He approached her cautiously, not wanting to startle her. “Hello, Shiro,” she said without turning around. He stopped walking.

            “I forget how good Altean hearing is,” he said with a half-smile. “And hello. Am I interrupting?”

            “No, of course not.” She waved a hand and the lights finally came on. They should’ve been lit from the moment she entered. She turned and smiled politely at him. “What is it?”

            “Nothing important. I can come back.”

            “No,” she said immediately. She looked down the stairs briefly, then back to him. “I’m sure there’re more important things for me to do than this.”

            He looked where she’d been looking, but there was nothing except an empty room. _Maybe that’s the problem_. “It must’ve been a sight to see, full of laughter and talking and dancing,” he guessed.

            “Yes, well, you might have a better idea of what it was like if you’d paid attention during our hosting of the Arusians,” she teased.

            He shrugged. “I’m a soldier at war. I was thinking about our security.”

            “And, in the end, you were right to do so,” she admitted. But she turned back to address the room again. “And you’re right: it was a sight to see. A sight I hope to see again someday.” She sighed. “But it will never be like it was.”

            He came over to stand next to her. “What was it like?”

            She smiled a little. “As the princess of Altea, I was expected to entertain and be a gracious hostess. The beginning of formal balls was always stuffy: receiving lines and canned responses, scripted and conscripted. I would just have to stand there and smile and I hated it. But once that was done, oh, it was wonderful.” Her smile widened as she gazed out into her memories. “Dancing and feasting and drinking. Every time, my last dance would be with Father, and then he would hug me and send me off to bed. I’d get to my room and just collapse, exhausted and footsore, but feeling like everything was good and right in the world. And it was, at least in my little part of the world, until I woke up the next day hardly able to walk.” She laughed. “Every time I would swear: never again. Never again would I dance so long or drink so much. And every time there was a ball, I would do it all over again anyway.”

            He couldn’t help smiling, watching her relive it, but her own smile faded as she sighed. “It will be a long time until we can have a ball here. And it won’t ever be like that again, no matter how much I dance or drink or feast.”

            “I’m sorry.”

            Silence settled in around them.

            “Do Earthlings have formal balls?”

            He shrugged. “Some of us. Most people don’t do anything quite that fancy, but I’ve been to a few.”

            “You have?” she asked. “Really?”

            “You sound like you don’t believe me.”

            “Oh, it’s not… I just… have trouble picturing you at a ball.” She exhaled roughly. “I’m sorry, that doesn’t sound much better. I don’t mean to insult you, truly I don’t.”

            He chuckled. “No, it’s okay. And they were military balls; slightly different. I had to be in my class A’s – fancy dress uniform – instead of a tux or a suit, and there weren’t receiving lines.” It was his turn to tell a story, he figured, so he addressed it to the ballroom as well.

            “I remember I had my first proper military ball coming up – not a dance at the Garrison, an actual ball, with high-ranking officers. And I was nervous as hell; I had this mental image that an officer or their spouse would want to dance with me and I’d step all over their toes and make a fool of myself and there would go my military career. WHOOSH! Down the toilet.”

            Allura laughed. “Would that really have happened?”

            “The threat to my career? Eh, not likely. Me embarrassing myself? _Real_ likely. So, I signed up for dance classes.”

            “Really?” He glanced over when she said that and found her grinning. “Shiro, you know how to dance?”

            “Ballroom dancing, sure. Waltzes and things like that. Formal, stuffy things.”

            She latched onto his arm. “Could you teach me an Earth dance?” she asked eagerly. He couldn’t tell her no when she was looking up at him like that, all beaming eyes and wide smile.

            But he hedged a bit. “There’s no music.”

            “There can be.” She waved a hand and a control screen came up. “What kind of music do you need?”

            “Um… I’ll know it when I hear it?” he offered weakly.

            She cued up something, ethereal music drifting out of hidden speakers. “It’s not as good as live instruments, of course,” she apologized.

            “It’s fine,” he said immediately, “but this is a little too slow.”

            She went through a few more selections until he found one. He nodded to himself, listening to the beats, and then said, “That should work.” He crooked his elbow out for her. “Shall we?”

            She giggled a little as she sent the screen away and accepted his arm. “You are a surprising man, Shiro.”

            “I hope that’s a compliment,” he said as he escorted her down the stairs.

            “It was intended to be so, yes.” She pressed his arm briefly and he tried to fight down the blush that sprang into his face.

            When they were on the ballroom floor, he dropped his elbow and cleared his throat. “Okay, now, I only know the box step; once you’ve got it, it’s easy. I’ll show you how. Here, let me stand next to you…”

            He demonstrated step, together, step, together, in a box shape. He thought she’d pick it up easily, but whenever he watched her do it, she would mess it up. He came over to stand behind her, put his hands on her hips, and tried not to think about what this would look like if someone else walked in just now.

            “Okay now this leg,” he patted her left hip, “steps forward.” She stepped forward with her left and let her right catch up with it. “No, not the right, too.” He pulled her gently back to the starting position. “Just the left.” Pat on her hip and she put her left leg forward. “Right foot goes over there,” he pointed, “and _then_ the left leg joins it.”

            “This seems awkward,” she protested.

            “Only when you’re first learning it,” he assured her. “It looks very nice when it all flows together. There you go!” as she did it. “Now the reverse: right one step back,” he patted her right hip and she stepped back just with that leg, “and left goes back to where it started, and right joins it there. You got it!”

            He let go of her hips and walked around to watch her do it a few more times. She smiled as she got the hang of it, and he mirrored that smile back to her. “Now comes the difficult part.”

            “Now?!” she repeated. “Just _now_ it’s getting difficult?”

            “We do it together, while spinning.”

            She stared at him like he’d just told her she had to stand on her head and juggle flaming chainsaws. He just chuckled. “I’ll guide you through it. Here.” He stepped up to her and tried to keep his heart from thudding out of his chest. “Put your ri- …no, left hand, left hand,” he nodded as he remembered it properly, “on my shoulder, and my hand goes here…” He placed it on her back, a bit higher up than he might’ve otherwise because she was a princess – _the_ Princess – and he didn’t want to scandalize her. She blushed anyway and he asked, “Is this okay?”

            She nodded. “What do we do with our other hands?”

            He clasped her free hand and held it out. “Like this. So far, so good?” She nodded again. “Okay, so I’ll lead.”

            “Your dances have leaders?”

            “This one does,” he told her. “It just means you follow my …um, I was going to say ‘lead’,” he laughed and hoped he didn’t sound as nervous as he felt. “Just let me guide.”

            “I have little choice,” she pointed out.

            “Now, I’m going to step forward, so you’ll have to step back.”

            “Basically, I have to do this ‘box step’ of yours backwards?” she asked.

            “Yes. Don’t worry if you step on my toes, and I’ll try not to step on yours.”

            “Oh yes, we can’t have that,” she teased, “I might throw you off Team Voltron if you embarrass me in front of all these people.”

            He couldn’t help laughing more at that. “Duly noted, Princess. Let’s try this.”

 

            The toe-damage began almost immediately. It took Allura a while to get used to doing this move backwards, and once she got the hang of that, Shiro introduced spinning into the equation. He tripped over her feet at one point, and she had to catch him before he hit the floor. She fell into his arms a few times. He never complained, of course, not even when she did step on his toes. They were apologizing and laughing and teasing one another almost non-stop until she got the hang of it.

            “Oh, this is actually quite pleasant now that we’re not falling all over each other,” she said.

            He chuckled again. “Sorry. I guess I’m not much of a dance teacher. I really only learned enough to keep my job, after all.”

            She grinned. “Well, fortunately for you, I don’t have anyone who can replace you as Black Paladin at the moment, so I suppose your current job is safe regardless of all of this.”

            “So, I learned to dance for nothing?”

            “I didn’t say that.” She squeezed his shoulder, and his smile widened. It occurred to him that, somehow in all of their troubles, his hand had slipped lower, to her waist. She hadn’t protested, so he left it where it was.

            Also, he’d also stopped thinking about what he’d say if Coran or one of the other paladins walked in on them. He’d stopped thinking of them entirely. He was caught up in the warmth of Allura in his arms, the twinkle in her eyes, and the melody of her laugh as they flowed through their waltz together.

            He surprised her by stepping away to spin her, and she laughed breathlessly as she returned to his arms. They resumed their box step. “I have to say, when I learned to dance, I never thought I’d be doing it in outer space.”

            “Yes, well, I wouldn’t try this in zero G,” she warned him.

            “No, probably not the best plan,” he agreed. “But if I could go back in time, I’d tell my past self to pay better attention to how the instructor taught us.”

            “You did fine. You were teaching someone who has no idea of how Earthlings dance in the first place, after all.”

            “Thank you.” He stopped moving, but didn’t release her yet. “You’re a very gracious and graceful partner, Princess.”

            “As are you, Paladin. And thank you for teaching me.” Her hands slid away from him, and he almost immediately wanted to start dancing again, just to have the excuse to hold her longer. She took a half step backwards. “Perhaps I should teach you an Altean dance in return?”

            “I’d like that,” he said, hope – and curiosity – springing in his chest.

            Coran’s voice broke into the music. “Princess, I could use you on the bridge.”

            “On my way,” she acknowledged. She smiled sadly at him. “Another time then.”

            “Another time,” he agreed with a nod.

            “And, Shiro? Thank you for helping me make a new happy memory here.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek quickly, then jogged off towards the bridge. He watched her go, smiling at this place and the memory it held for him now.


End file.
